{"id":1054257,"date":"2022-04-12T19:08:38","date_gmt":"2022-04-12T19:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/04\/12\/didier-drogba-cleared-to-stand-in-ivory-coast-polls\/"},"modified":"2022-04-12T19:08:38","modified_gmt":"2022-04-12T19:08:38","slug":"didier-drogba-cleared-to-stand-in-ivory-coast-polls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/04\/12\/didier-drogba-cleared-to-stand-in-ivory-coast-polls\/","title":{"rendered":"Didier Drogba cleared to stand in Ivory Coast polls"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"366\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/1024x538_841823-696x366.jpg\"   alt=\"Drogba\" title=\"Drogba\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Drogba<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Former Chelsea striker Didier Drogba has been cleared to stand in the long-delayed elections to be the next president of Ivory Coast\u2019s Football federation (FIF).<\/p>\n<p>A total of six candidates, including outgoing vice president Idriss Diallo, have been approved by FIF\u2019s Fifa-installed normalization committee to stand in the polls on 23 April.<\/p>\n<p>The voting was originally scheduled to be carried out in September 2020 but has been repeatedly postponed because of ongoing issues over the eligibility of certain candidates, including Drogba.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe candidacy for the presidency of the Ivorian football federation is closed,\u201d Mariam Dao Gabala, president of the FIF normalization committee, announced at a news conference.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/22191989129,1002554\/MGL\/mgl_ado_atunwa_300x250 --><\/p>\n<p>\u201cSix candidates have been registered. They are Yatte Ellele Jean-Baptiste, Arnaud Aka, Laurent Kouakou, Idriss Diallo, Sory Diabate and Didier Drogba,\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Drogba played more than 100 times for the Elephants, including at the 2006 and 2010 World Cups, but was told in August 2020 that he\u00a0was not eligible to stand in the election.<\/p>\n<p>After intervention from the world governing body Fifa, the 44-year-old, who won four Premier League titles, four FA Cups, and the Champions League across two spells with Chelsea, retains his hopes of running the game in the West African country.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ ALSO<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The former BBC African Footballer of the Year formally submitted his forms on Monday and reiterated his\u00a0desire to change the face of the Ivorian game.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFinally here we are,\u201d Drogba said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can\u2019t wait for the campaign to start. Have strong faith in me to bring Ivorian football to life if elected.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Last week Drogba told BBC Sport Africa: \u201cI can bring the change that the federation and the clubs need. Football isn\u2019t rising the way it should and the way we want it in Ivory Coast.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Drogba also appeared for French sides Guingamp and Marseille, Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua, Turkey\u2019s Galatasaray, and MLS outfit Montreal Impact during his playing career.<\/p>\n<p>He won a Turkish title with Galatasaray and became the Ivory Coast\u2019s all-time top scorer before retiring in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Ivory Coast are two-time champions of Africa, having won the Africa Cup of Nations in 1992 and 2015, and will host the 2023 edition of the Nations Cup.<\/p>\n<p>            <!--  [embed]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=videoseries[\/embed]<!--\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>--><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"Ll6qExtSWMw\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Center of Awareness Global Peace Mission launches 5-yr plan - Premtobre Kasee on Adom TV (12-4-22)\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ll6qExtSWMw?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Drogba Former Chelsea striker Didier Drogba has been cleared to stand in the long-delayed elections to be the next president of Ivory Coast\u2019s Football federation (FIF). A total of six candidates, including outgoing vice president Idriss Diallo, have been approved by FIF\u2019s Fifa-installed normalization committee to stand in the polls on 23 April. The voting [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1054258,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[2574,1314,5905,4580,1316,7416,2621],"class_list":["post-1054257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-cleared","tag-coast","tag-didier","tag-drogba","tag-ivory","tag-polls","tag-stand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1054257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1054257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1054257\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1054257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1054257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1054257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}